COOL IN THE SHADE : THE LGBTQ +
SUPPORT
CHARACTER
BY BRIANNA LEESCH
Today is the day , that one day a month when
you have a bit of extra cash in your pocket .
Time to hit the bookstore ! Mentally you have already thought of the titles that came out with the latest volume as you head inside . Not even bothering to glance at the staff picks front and center or the latest bestsellers flooding the tables all along the aisles , you march straight over to the comic book section and breathe a happy sigh . Immediately your fingers fly to pull out volume after volume , alphabetically only after you have found the one title you need to own . Flipping through the pages of a new comic you ’ ve never seen before , your “ gotta have ” stack already five trades deep beside you on the ground , you pause at a scene that catches your eye and makes your heart race .
In the grand scheme of the plot , read from the back of the book , this scene is so very minor . But to you , it is the pivotal picture that sells you on reading further , closer , and it might even be why you buy the book . Is it the kiss scene between a street-hardened cop and her cute , single-mother neighbor , or a heart-to-heart between two young people in love for the first time at a Pride parade ? The page could simply be of a crowd of people waving to the superhero flying by and somewhere in that crowd is two men holding hands . Whatever the picture might be , you are very aware that these characters are different from the others . They are like you .
There are , of course , instances in this manga where failure to maintain Dario ’ s character in the correct way occurs . Because of either translation from Japanese to English , or in the original writing , how Dario is addressed at times could be considered wrong . In some panels , especially ones without Dario present , she is referred to as he . For readers who understand the power of pronouns this can be slightly off-putting . However , Dario never lets this take away from her sense of self . She knows who she is and is not compromising that in any way , even referring to the protagonist as a boy in volume two , even though Nina identifies as a staight girl . It puts a spin on their relationship that is refreshing to witness .
Finding these moments of misrepresentation or a return to societal norms should never be cause to stop reading . As a reader , I take these moments and reaffirm my own desire to honor an individual ’ s pronoun when speaking to others . That our literature is still catching up to us merely says we need to get more of it out there .
A recent purchase of my own – Beasts of Abigaile by Spica Aoki – had this effect on me when I first whimsically trolled through the manga pages . Volume one shows an atypical Juliet and Romeo scenario with werewolves broken into homes ( groups headed by an alpha ) surviving mistreatment and enslavement by the humans in a small principality of Italy where special roses grow . “ Intriguing ,” I thought and kept reading . Then , at a crucial moment of the first volume when our heroine is struggling to understand her new circumstances as a werewolf and her imprisonment for defying the order of things , a voice calls out from the jail cell beside hers . And I meet Dario , Alpha of the White Rose Maiden Association , home to transgender men .
This character is not considered a main character by any means . Dario exists to assist the main protagonist , and she ( Dario ) is the perfect candidate to do so . Cunning , compassionate , couragous , and definitely classy , Dario engenders a love from the reader making them smile , whoop , and cheer for her group ’ s shenanigans at every turn . At times Dario seems carefree of her circumstances , but as the story goes on we find out this queen has a dream and believes that it will , with help , one day come true .
Reading a comic with such a dynamic support character is a treat – and even more so when that character represents the LGBTQ + community with grace and bravery . We don ’ t always get a main character who identifies with our community , but sometimes I prefer finding gems between the panels and rejoicing in how “ normal ” it is becoming to see a couple simply holding hands or embracing in the
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